Learn to Create Landscapes that are in tune with Human Well Being
Learn to create landscapes that benefit people
What Will You Learn
- To understand the psychological and physical impact of the environment on people
- To choose and use soft and hard landscaping materials in ways that enhance a person's health and wellbeing
- To be a better and more successful professional - horticulturist, garden designer, builder, planner, engineer or architect
Lessons
There are ten lessons in this course as follows:
- Relationship between Outdoor Environments and Human Wellbeing
- Design Considerations
- Patterns and Principles in Urban Design
- Components of the Landscape
- Providing Services to People
- Affecting the Individual
- Affecting Environmental and Climate Conditions
- Assessing and Analyzing Existing Landscapes
- Integrating Biophilic Design into Existing Landscape
- Working in/ Improving Urban Development
Course Length - 100 nominal hours
THE NEED FOR MORE BIOPHILIC LANDSCAPING
Many landscapes and cityscapes have not been designed under biophilic principles; but as the awareness and understanding of this discipline grows, the demand for skilled biophilic landscapers is also growing rapidly.
Indeed, many are not only not very people-friendly and lacking in representation of nature, they are distinctly biophobic. By now you should have a very clear understanding of what parts of a landscape can be considered biophilic and what parts are not. Of course, not everything can be biophilic. For example, the surface of a road has to be of a particular texture and surface in order for tyres to grip it but the roadsides and walkways can be enhanced with planting. Sometimes it just takes a little imagination or thinking outside the box to make something of even the most hostile places. In the East End of London, for example, one man has been installing miniature gardens in potholes in the gutters of streets by inserting annual flowers and tiny embellishments. They may not last very long but they receive a lot of attention from passers-by whilst they do.
There are different ways you can examine a landscape to determine its effectiveness as a biophilic one. For example, you can look at how it makes you feel. Does it instill a sense of calm or relaxation, or does it make you feel anxious? What types of sensory stimulation does it offer? Sight, sound, or smell perhaps? Would you like to spend time there? If so, why?
It can be said that three kinds of experience represent biophilic techniques (Kellert et al., 2008), namely: direct experience of nature, indirect experience of nature, and experience of space and place.
As a reminder:
- Direct experience of nature - this includes contact with plants, animals, water, soil, and air.
- Indirect experience of nature - this includes contact with representations of nature such as pictures, photographs, images of nature, as well as natural patterns and materials.
- Experience of space and place - this includes spatial arrangements from natural environments which humans have used over the centuries to enhance health and wellbeing.
WHERE CAN THIS COURSE LEAD
Anywhere in the landscape or environmental industries.
It can open your eyes to opportunities in your chosen industry and greatly improve the way you move forward not only in your profession, but also in the private places where you spend your time.
LEARN FROM AN EXCEPTIONAL TEAM OF EXPERTS
ACS Distance Education is unique, and we have trained tens of thousands of people in horticulture. The principal is an internationally renowned horticulturist; the only person to have been made a fellow both by the Australian Institute of Horticulture and the UK Institute of Horticulture. He is also a fellow of Parks and Leisure Australia; and early in his career, at the age of 23 was the youngest parks superintendent in Australia. Our team of expert tutors are all university trained and exceptionally well experienced professionals.
Landscape Design Can Affect People in So Many Subtle Ways
Environmental stimuli for example, are potential stressors. They don't actually cause anyone to experience stress, until that person perceives them to be stressful. So, when planning a biophilic landscape, you should consider that it is not necessary to remove all potential stressors but to allow for means of coping with them. If you are designing a roof top garden in the middle of a city, you can't get rid of all the noise from traffic below but you may be able to dampen the noise with screening of dense shrubs or mask the noise with a pleasant alternative like trickling water from a fountain.
